13 August 2025

From the Principal

The days get longer but the weather gets colder – welcome to August!

Swimming and Water Safety is currently underway, and a lot of students are eating a lot more at Cooked-Lunch and getting very tired by the end of the week. For our Year 3, 4 & 5 students, it is a great chance to have daily lessons and extend their water safety skills. The emphasis is on water safety and having the skills to be safe in and around all the water that our wonderful state has. This week there is a lot of activities in the pool in full clothing, learning to get yourself to safety. A big thank you to Mr Dudgeon and our staff for the extra effort it takes to organise, transport and pull off the program.

Last week we had international consultant Kath Murdoch on site to help our teachers grow and learn. Kath’s work has been seminal for us since 2019 to extend and develop our students into the worldly citizens that we want them to be. Unfortunately, Kath has had a number of personal matters on each of her planned visits for the last 3 years with us. As such, it was great to see her again at our school this year and connect with our teachers. Kath was planning with teams and then in rooms showcasing skills in and with our staff. It is a privilege to be able to work with people of such high regard as Kath at our school and we look forward to continuing the relationship.

Redevelopment Update Stage 2 – Gymnasium and Carparking

Members of our Department’s Facilities team are working with Council to get a lease executed for the land. Conversations are tracking in the right direction, and we are looking to form a Project Working Group (PWG) soon.

The PWG will consist of myself and Shelley (School Business Manager) from the school, School Association Representation, our Project Manager (Department employee in Facilities), Architect, and Council Representative(s). This group will work through the previous consultation work and devise a concept plan fitting the nearly $10M budget that we have.

The plan will be circulated for feedback before being submitted through the regular processes of a Development Application. This process should start in the next little while with a goal to starting construction in 12 months’ time or sooner.

Reading – Word Recognition

Earlier in the year, we’ve shared a bit about reading and the importance of reading widely and often to improve background knowledge and vocabulary. Last Newsletter, we discussed what fluency is and how this is built over time through repeated efforts at reading – focussing on accuracy, pace, and expression.

This week we want to discuss the foundational block to reading – Word Recognition skills.

Word Recognition skills incorporate decoding (sounding out and making sense of what is on the page), phonological awareness (hearing patterns and sounds in words) and oral language (how well you speak and explain yourself). Together, the goal of word recognition is to move students through seeing a letter (grapheme), to saying that sound of that letter (or group of letters, ie a diagraph), to blending the sounds together to make a word. Then, over time, humans recognise the patterns or the whole word and say the word, rather than the parts or sounds.

Nowadays, we explicitly teach the sounds that letters make and layer the complexity overtime. In Kindergarten, we use a program called “Heggarty”, to go through all the sounds in a deliberate and planned manner. We use movement and repetition to put these sounds to memory. When students enter Prep, through to Year 2, we use “UFLI” (University of Florida Literacy Institute, pronounced U-FLY) Foundations program to teach increasingly more complex sounds and patterns. This year, while we introduced UFLI, our year 3 students have received some UFLI instruction. By following these programs, the biggest benefit is knowing that the same content is being taught in all of our classes. The programs also build in continual recursive learning, meaning that students are constantly re-engaging with prior learning to build their skills. We had many great components of a word recognition program in the past, and as such, our students have been exposed to the right things and ways of learning. Moving forward, we will now know that there are no gaps in students’ content as the same letters and sounds are taught across the school at roughly the same time.

To match the skills that we are teaching them, we use decodable readers as instructional texts. These short books deliberately use the same and similar letters and sound patterns that we are teaching at school. It is important that we use decodable texts, and not the old, levelled readers, as the decodable texts and using a gradual increase in letter and sound complexity that has a higher proven ability to be learnt faster. They are easier to sound out and learn the patterns of words.

The old, levelled readers now serve a good purpose of introducing our students to “authentic texts”, books with words in order that are less predictable and harder to read. Think of decodable books as training wheels, we use them early on but are trying to get off them as fast as possible. Lots of practise with decodable texts is the best way to get off them.

In years 3 to 6, we have introduced a program called Word Origins. As you get older, you can read words, but we need to build your bank of words up – understanding how words are built, where they come from and the root of words can help you to learn patterns to decode words in the future. As a child of the 80s – I can tell you that I am learning a lot in Word Origins! It can be pretty intense and there is a lot of learning going on.

Both programs are designed to increase our students “orthographic memory” of words. We want our students to have a really large bank of words that they can see and say, without sounding out. For more difficult words, we want our students to also be able to make a good inference about what the word might mean if they have not seen it before. This is what we do as adults. Additionally, both of these programs are the suggested Departmental Programs, meaning that they are most likely being taught in other government schools as well.

What does word recognition mean in reading?

Can you sound out parts of a word and work out or know what they mean? Even better – can you see a word and say it, and know what it means?

How to support word recognition at home

To get better at word recognition (your work at home), it’s best to do two things:

1. For emerging readers – read any decodables sent home and complete UFLI home practise sheets.
2. For beginning and confident readers – read books together and talk about the complex words you come across.

When stuck on a word, ask students what they see that they know:

• “What sound does that letter make?”
• “Does this look like a word you know?”

What can be tricky is if you pronounce or teach sounds or words different than what we do at school. This can create a barrier. If you are stuck – please reach out to your class teacher with your specific questions and you will get support. Ideally, we would teach you what we know, this knowledge needs to be passed on over time, just like learning to fix your own car, there are lots of parts and knowledge needed.

If nothing else, please continue to read, support your child to have a reading routine and to talk a lot together. AND ask your class teacher questions on what to do to next support your child’s word recognition skills.

See you all soon – Courtney

School Association

The School Association sausage sizzle and cake stall that was held on election day, Saturday 19 July, was a great success.

Despite the threat of some real winter weather, school holidays and voter fatigue, we made a profit of $1,009.99, which was a fantastic result.

Thanks to everyone who donated cakes and slices for the stall this time. They were a huge hit with the voters.

Special thanks to the members of the School Association and Staff that volunteered their time again to run the stall, and very special thanks to parents Claire Hall and Jack Burbury for volunteering their time to help also.

Father’s Day Stall – Wednesday 3rd September

Mark your calendars and get ready to celebrate Father’s Day with us on Wednesday 3^rd September. Gifts will range from $1 - $6, Please send your children to school with some cash and a bag. We look forward to seeing you at the stall and helping you find the perfect way to say “thank you” to the remarkable men in your lives.

Donations for the stall would be greatly appreciated. If you have anything to donate, please leave it in the office.

Let’s make this Father’s Day unforgettable!

Dental Health Week - August 4–10

Last week was Dental Health Week! Our School Health Nurse, Emma, is available to support families with any questions they may have about their child’s oral health. Please contact Nurse Emma via the school on 6248 5168.

You can also call Oral Health Services Tasmania on 1300 011 013 to book a free dental appointment for most children up to 18 years.

Assemblies in Term 3

Assemblies are held in the MPR and start at 1.40pm. All are welcome to attend. This term’s remaining Assemblies will be on:

Friday 15 August
Friday 12 September

Congratulations

Congratulations to Zack W in 3/4A and Toby W in 1/2C who both received medals for the Archie’s 100 best and fairest team member. Zack plays under 10’s and Toby plays under 8’s for the Clarence Football Club.

Congratulations also to Jackson P who won the Primary Pencil/Pen division of the JATNET Japanese Calligraphy Competition and to Asha McG who received an Honourable Mention in the Primary Brush and Ink division.

Let’s Celebrate!

Community Notice Board